1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a service provision support system that is used for providing users with service.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, customer needs have been diversified, and contents of services provided to users have also been diversified and are changing every day. Therefore, a user may have to select a desired service from a lot of choices when receiving service provision.
For example, many kinds of dishes are prepared and listed on a menu at a restaurant. The contents of the menu may be changed in accordance with the time or the season. Therefore, it is possible that the user cannot make up his or her mind for selecting a best choice, so as to keep a waiter or a waitress waiting for a long time. Otherwise, the user may regret his or her haste decision without enough consideration because of hesitation in keeping a waiter or a waitress waiting.
In addition, it is possible that the diversification of service contents deteriorates usability features of a machine operated by users. For example, a ticket-vending machine for a railway is used for vending not only a normal ticket but also other kinds of tickets such as an express ticket, a book of tickets, a day-time book of tickets, a discount ticket, a transfer ticket to another railway, a transfer ticket to a bus, various kinds of prepaid cards or a commuter ticket. Therefore, the user has to designate not only a section of track but also the kind of the ticket. As a result, it may take the user relatively long time to buy a ticket because of the complicated operation of the vending machine. The user may mistake the operation of the vending machine when he or she worries about people behind him or her in line.
A vending machine for drinks may be used for vending mainly cold drinks in hot season and hot drinks in cold season. Furthermore, since a lot of new products have been sold recently, drinks in a vending machine may be replaced with new products in a short period of time not depending on the season. In addition, if drinks are served in a paper cup, a user can select ice or non-ice and increase or decrease quantities of sugar and milk. Therefore, similarly to a case of a restaurant or a ticket-vending machine, it is possible that the user cannot make up his or her mind for selecting a desired drink, or linger over his or her decision, or mistake the operation of the vending machine when he or she worries about people behind him or her in line.
The above-mentioned problems may be more conspicuous as the service becomes more diversified, resulting in unintended loss of convenience for users.
For this reason, some methods are proposed for a user to select easily desired one from many choices. For example, one of the proposed methods uses a large touch panel located on the machine that user operates, and the user selects desired one in accordance with a guidance displayed on a screen.
However, even if guidance is displayed on the large touch panel, it takes considerable period of time for users to be accustomed to the operation. Therefore, the above-mentioned problems are not solved yet. In addition, a machine with a large touch panel requires cost higher than the conventional machine equipped with push buttons.
There are other improved methods that enable users to select desired one from many options easily at low cost, in which a plurality of functions (using modes) is assigned to one key of a machine, or display screens of the conventional touch panel are displayed in a hierarchical menu form. However, they are not user friendly because they require the user to operate by more steps than the conventional machine.
An object of the present invention is to provide a service provision support system that has good usability features, so that users can select desired one without worrying about a salesclerk or people behind him or her waiting in line.
A service provision support system according to the present invention is a service provision support system for performing a process for providing a service to a user. The system comprises means for receiving request information of service provision, means for issuing identifying information for each of the received request information, means for storing the received request information in connection with the identifying information issued about the request information, means for transmitting the issued identifying information to a terminal designated by the user who requested the service corresponding to the identifying information, means for obtaining the identifying information received by the terminal of the user who had access to a service provision site from the same terminal, means for extracting the request information from the storing means, the request information corresponding to one that is identical to the identifying information obtained by the obtaining means among the identifying information stored in the storing means; and means for controlling a thing for service provision in accordance with the extracted request information.
Another form of the service provision support system comprises means for transmitting the received request information as job information to a terminal designated by the user who requested the service corresponding to the request information, means for obtaining the job information received by the terminal of the user who had access to a service provision site from the same terminal, and means for controlling a thing for service provision in accordance with the obtained job information.
In another aspect, the system comprises means for storing the received request information in connection with user identifying information for identifying the user who sent the request information, means for obtaining the user identifying information of the user from a possession of the user who had access to a service provision site, and means for extracting the request information from the storing means, the request information corresponding to one that is identical to the user identifying information obtained by the obtaining means among the user identifying information stored in the storing means.
The service provision support system may comprise a server and a plurality of service provision processors. In this case, the server includes means for receiving request information of service provision, means for issuing identifying information for each of the received request information, means for storing the received request information in connection with the identifying information issued about the request information, means for transmitting the issued identifying information to a terminal designated by the user who requested the service corresponding to the identifying information, means for extracting the request information requested by the service provision processor from the storing means, and means for transmitting the extracted request information to the service provision processor that made the request. The service provision processor includes means for obtaining the identifying information received by the terminal of the user who had access to a service provision site from the same terminal, means for requesting the server for the request information corresponding to one that is identical to the identifying information obtained by the obtaining means among the identifying information stored in the storing means, and means for controlling a thing for service provision in accordance with the request information obtained from the server.
The service provision processor may include means for transmitting sales information concerning sales of the service provision processor to the server, and the server may include means for calculating fee that is charged to an owner of the service provision processor in accordance with the sales information obtained from the service provision processor.
A server according to the present invention is a server that is used for a service provision support system for performing a process for providing a service to a user. The server comprises means for receiving request information of service provision, means for issuing identifying information for each of the received request information, means for storing the received request information in connection with the identifying information issued about the request information, means for transmitting the issued identifying information to a terminal designated by the user who requested the service corresponding to the identifying information, means for extracting the request information from the storing means, the request information corresponding to one that is identical to the identifying information designated by a service provision processor among the identifying information stored in the storing means, and means for transmitting the extracted request information to the service provision processor.
A vending machine according to the present invention is a vending machine that ejects a product stored therein responding to an instruction of a user. The vending machine comprises first transmission means for transmitting a product ordering screen to a user terminal via a network in accordance with an instruction from the user terminal, means for receiving request information written on the product ordering screen from the terminal, means for issuing identifying information responding to the received request information, means for storing the received request information in connection with the identifying information, second transmission means for transmitting the issued identifying information to the terminal designated by the user, means for obtaining the identifying information received by the terminal of the user who had access to the vending machine from the same terminal, means for extracting the request information from the storing means, the request information corresponding to one that is identical to the identifying information obtained by the obtaining means among the identifying information stored in the storing means, and means for controlling a product to be ejected in accordance with the extracted request information.
Furthermore, the service in the present invention includes sale of various products such as foods and drinks, music records and CDs or game software, refueling, provision of foods and drinks, ticket sale, money exchange, document copying and facsimile transmission.